The storytelling in The Witching Hour is long-winded and suffers because of it. It’s a long, ambitious book that succeeds, but only in part. The novel covers the history of the Mayfair family, particularly the thirteen witches, over a period of about three hundred years. It starts with where and how they began and carries through to the modern day (1990) and Rowan, the thirteenth witch and main character.
It also covers the history of Michael, the other main character, as well as that of Aaron and the mysterious organization he belongs to, the Talamasca. The novel covers a lot of ground.
Here’s where it comes across as peculiar to me: I could have done without roughly the first 150 expository pages and the last 100, as well as a sections sprinkled here and there throughout. The beginning, those first 150 pages, introduces characters one by one with protracted descriptions. Detail is always good in a novel but here it is excessive. You keep wondering when a story will get underway.
The last one hundred pages, and other parts here and there, highlight what for me is a major problem with The Witching Hour. It concerns the main characters, Rowan and Michael. They are the two least interesting characters in the book. While nicely setup, once we see them in action they come across as soap opera characters with emotions switching back and forth as a scene demands. It’s almost as if they fall apart as they come more to the forefront.
The other main character of the book is a “something” — demon, spirit, no one really knows — named Lasher. He’s intriguing, sinister, and mysterious when he’s ill-defined. But in the book’s later pages, as we close in on the conclusion, he gains definition and develops into a stock, mustache twirling character.
On the other hand, most of the main portion of the book is the wonderful history Rice creates of the Mayfair witches, beginning with Suzanne. It takes us from Scotland to Haiti to New Orleans with the fascinating stories of the family and the witches. The book focuses on different characters as they arise in the history and tells their stories, almost all of which are more compelling than the main story.
The main story is romance meets horror with a bit of mess thrown in. I read about 900 pages then gave up on the book and put it aside for several weeks before returning and making myself finish it. To be truthful, I read the entire book back when it came out in 1990 and I recall enjoying it immensely. I don’t remember being as frustrated with it as I was this time.
Maybe I’m more finicky now. Whatever the case, I feel this is a good novel that could have been much better had some major editing been done. Length in itself is not a fault. But often, as here, it isn’t necessary. It may be that The Witching Hour would have worked better as a short story/novella collection rather than in the form of a novel. It is, essentially, a long collection of stories that are interrelated. It also doesn’t need New Orleans to be repeatedly described (once would have been fine) or architecture and old houses to be described endlessly.
I suspect Rice’s love of the city and of old houses got away from her. You can tell how much they mean to her but, in the book, it creates bogs of indulgence. I think if The Witching Hour had been half the length it is, it would have been a great novel.
December 28, 2017